SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk is now clear after the California legislature sent him more than 1,000 bills this year.
Newsom has vetoed 156 bills and signed 890 into law. Among those are 56 housing measures, streamlining the production and removing barriers that make it challenging to build affordable housing units.
“It’s going to require all of us to pitch in and do something,” said Regina Banks, director of the Lutheran Office of Public Policy California.
Banks is in charge of advocating for about 400 Lutheran congregations on issues such as ending childhood poverty, environmental concerns and housing. This year, she fought for the passing of Senate Bill 4, one of the measures signed by Newsom.
SB 4 will allow faith institutions and nonprofit private colleges to build affordable housing on their land without going through an expensive rezoning process.
“Literally, our calling is to love our neighbor, and if we are going to love our neighbor in California, we’re going to have to do something about the housing crisis and that is from a policy standpoint,” Banks said.
Until now, Banks says there has been a lot of red tape from local governments that have discouraged churches from using existing land to build more housing.
“Using the land that we sit on seems to be the perfect marriage of loving our neighbor with the benefits and the blessings that we already hold,” she adds.
Abram Diaz, policy director for the Nonprofit Housing Association of Northern California, is also celebrating the passage of SB 4.
“It was studied by the UC Berkeley Terner Center and we’re going to open up 171,000 acres of land across the state. It’s incredibly impactful and all that land is strictly for the production of low-income housing,” Diaz said.
Another bill Diaz said will help address California’s housing shortage is AB 1633, speeding up projects local jurisdictions have stalled. Many local jurisdictions have pointed their fingers at CEQA as a reason for delaying construction.
“We are closing those loopholes with AB 1633. If someone has passed their test, done the job, got their permit, you need to help them move to construction because we needed those homes yesterday, we needed those homes 10 years ago,” Diaz said.
Newsom also signed AB 529 into law. The measure aims to streamline the conversion of vacant office buildings into affordable housing.
“I think we’re in a time where California is finally turning the corner on the affordable housing crisis and seeking to produce the amount of units we need to ensure families have options and choices at their various income levels,” added Diaz.
Banks noted she looks forward to seeing how SB 4 will make a difference in solving what she considers to be the moral issue of our time.
“The bill doesn’t require us, or anyone, to do anything," she said. "It just gives us that opportunity and opens another door for us to live into those baptismal covenants."